If you haven’t seen or heard anything about The Martian, well, you must have been stranded on Mars for the past four or five months. The Ridley Scott vehicle has been all over the place, from production stills, to promo videos, to a debut trailer. Now, a second full-length trailer focuses on the action and the tension, and adds a little Jimi Hendrix:
During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring “the Martian” home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible rescue mission. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney’s safe return. Based on a best-selling novel, and helmed by master director Ridley Scott, THE MARTIAN features a star studded cast that includes Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Kate Mara, Michael Pena, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Donald Glover.
I have been going back and forth on The Martian. I was absolutely floored by Andy Weir’s novel, so any disservice in a theatrical version is what keeps me at arm’s length. On top of the fact that Ridley Scott has been struggling to make a quality film for a decade, and I have been sucked in by his trailers (for Prometheus and The Counselor, especially) in the past. That being said, this trailer does have my attention, which may have something to do with “All Along the Watchtower.”
The Witch, one of the biggest hits at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, has a terrifying new trailer. Robert Eggers’ film was the talk of the Festival last winter, and judging from this unsettling trailer (yes, even the trailer is unsettling), I can see why.
New England, 1630: William and Katherine lead a devout Christian life, homesteading on the edge of an impassible wilderness, with five children. When their newborn son mysteriously vanishes and their crops fail, the family begins to turn on one another. In his debut feature, writer/director Robert Eggers painstakingly designs an authentic re-creation of New England — generations before the 1692 trials in Salem — evoking the alluring and terrifying power of the timeless witch myth. Told through the eyes of Thomasin, the teenage daughter (in a star-making performance by Anya Taylor-Joy), and supported by haunting camera work and an ominous score, The Witch is a chilling portrait of a family unraveling within their own fears and anxieties, leaving them prey for an inescapable evil.
The Witch looks like a fascinatingly unnerving picture, and judging by the rave reviews and critic quotes in the trailer, it most certainly is. While it doesn’t have a firm opening date, The Witch will hit theaters some time in 2016.
Sex sells tickets at the box-office. Usually, the sex that is being sold is young women objectified by men in pursuit of one thing. Movies that tackle life, mind, and growing up as 15-year-old girl are extremely rare. The Diary of a Teenage Girl is that kind of a picture, and it is sensational.
It is 1976, a year besieged with horrid wallpaper and wall-to-wall coverage of the Patty Hearst abduction. Minnie Goetze, a 15-year old portrayed by the remarkable actress Bel Powley, sits on the sofa next to her mother’s (Kristen Wiig) boyfriend. She wonders if Monroe (Alexander Skarsgard) had touched her breasts by accident or not. Minnie’s heart is thundering and her head is racing a mile a minute. Surprisingly, her thoughts are motivated by sex, and the thought of losing her virginity to Monroe.
Monroe and Minnie become lovers in the tumultuous early going of The Diary Of A Teenage Girl. I’m certain this will immediately turn off some, but let me say if you think that this movie is about Monroe being predator then you are underestimating its complexity. Goetze’s sexual energy sets the tone for the film: both are serious and unpredictable.
Diary is the feature film debut for writer/director Marielle Heller. She adapted it from Phoebe Glockner’s graphic novel/commix/diary, which was published in 2002. In the book, Gloeckner’s alter ego, Minnie, had way more erotic encounters than the film can touch on in its 101 minutes. Heller makes a few tweaks, but they appear minor. She directs this film with a raw and unapologetic eye. I was both uncomfortable and entranced from beginning to end.
One of the most telling moments in the film is when Minnie confesses, “I want a body pressed up next to me, just to know that I’m really here.” The film boldly asks whether or not society leads young ladies to believe that self worth and sexual activity go hand and hand. The diary becomes a secret account of her torrid time with Monroe. As I’m sure you figured out, the secret cannot stay hidden; though, once it’s out, the movie is far from over.
Kristen Wiig gives the best performance of her acting career. Her shining moment has to be when she stumbles upon Minnie’s taped account of her illicit activities with Monroe. What stood out to me was not what was said in that moment but what was implied. As the tape is playing, Wig holds this look of devastation and guilt for the innocence that her eldest child has now lost. It’s that type of authenticity that ramps the emotional core of this movie up tenfold and is big reason why this film is so successful.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl is rife with realistic and heartfelt performances, but the movie truly needed a captivating performance from Bel Powley, which it got. Powley, who was 21 at the time of filming, is truly convincing as a young teen: full of devastating passion, indecision, and all consuming desires. Just the mere oscillation of emotions throughout the film take you down a tumultuous time period in a young women’s life and it’s a scary place.
You get the feeling watching this film that we are witnessing the rise of a star. It’s not out of the question to include Powley in the Best Actress conversation around Oscar time. The film is harsh but astute, and in the end Minnie realizes that loving yourself is best type of revolution. What a message for young women everywhere.
The first issue of All-New Archie surprised me and judging from the critical reception that followed, I’m not the only one that was shocked to find Archie relevant in today’s comic market. The premiere issue managed to revitalise the franchise and as someone with no real history with the characters, I was amazed by how much the Riverdale gang endeared themselves to me within a mere 22 pages. This was a town, full of rich, funny characters with whom I would be happy to share a drink with. In All-New Archie, issue 2 our favourite red-head searches for a job, as Waid and Staples expand on the refreshed origin story by examining one of the core female leads and briefly introducing the second.
First, let’s talk a bit about Jughead. Other than Archie himself, he was the standout character of the first issue, being the only one of his friend-group to approach the break-up in a sensitive manner. He alone seemed to understand how best to deal with the situation, despite using a somewhat mischievous methodology to attempt to rekindle Betty and Archie’s relationship. While his appearances are few and far between in this second issue, we are given an interesting look into his past. Jughead’s family, once members of high society, lost all their money in a scam when he was ten years old. Since then he has been the subject of ridicule by his peers. All this leads this to the development of fascinating personal philosophy based on not allowing others to define your self-worth. While Jughead may appear the fool, he is arguably one of the more mature characters featured. This is a Jughead that I can see supporting their own book and one that I hope to enjoy when Chip Zdarsky and Erica Henderson get their hands on the character in October. More importantly, it is this philosophy which sets the tone for the battle of perception that follows.
While Archie’s quest for gainful employment acts at the Lodge construction site as the framing mechanism of the issue, the red-head from Riverdale takes a backseat this installment. The true heart of the story lies with our first real insight into Betty; Archie’s ex-girlfriend. Betty’s issues post-breakup revolve around her sense of identity. She, unlike many of her friends and family, does not view herself in traditional gendered terms. Betty is more comfortable playing video-games and fixing cars than she is dressing up like many of her peers. Staples does an excellent job at illustrating the inner turmoil of a teenager struggling to deal with the expectations placed upon her by her gender. When faced with societal assumptions as to how girls are meant to act, she rejects them, but part of her desires the simplicity of conforming. Betty’s frustration is expressed in moments of comedic disgust at many of the beauty products presented to her and also through quiet moments of silent sorrow over what’s been lost.
It’s also clear that Betty still cares deeply about Archie (and vice-versa) deepening the mystery as to what could have happened to the so-called “Power Couple”. Their break-up has negatively impacted her ability to identify as “one of the guys” and as such, she struggles to find her place within their friend group. It’s a difficult and complicated subject-matter, one which could easily be squandered and belittled in the hands of a lesser creative team. It’s not the sort of thing that one normally expects a comedy series to tackle, but then you remember that you are dealing with the infallible Mark Waid. Betty’s struggle is reflective of Jughead’s philosophy; the need to be who you are and not how others see you. It’s an incredibly important part of growing up, something I’m sure many of us can identify with, and it’s one that the series tackles expertly.
Fiona Staples’ illustrations are fantastic throughout with animated characters and vibrant backgrounds. Her cover art for this issue is also superb, mirroring Betty’s inner-turmoil in a subtle way. In a way given the discussion on gender norms presented within, it could be said that the cover is asking us how we engage in that discourse and suggesting that we too may want to re-examine ourselves.
Last time, I described All-New Archie as your favourite sitcom in comic form. That statement remains true, but it’s important to recognise that this sitcom is one that isn’t afraid to challenge its audience. Like thebest in the genre, it uses the comedic format, but also examines troubled characters in a naunced fashion.I’m unsure as to how long this creative team plans to stay with the book, with some sources stating that it is set to last a mere three issues, but if the series can maintain the quality that it has brought to these first two issues, then I can see myself staying in Riverdale for the foreseeable future. It’s rare that you find a book that mixes the comedic and dramatic elements so well and All-New Archie nails it. With Veronica finally set to make her full-appearance next time, the drama and the comedy can only get better from here.
What do you think? Are you digging All-New Archie? Let us know in the comments below. Make sure to join us next week for the second edition of our Book Club, where we will be looking at Y:The Last Man, Volume 1.
It’s done! This should be the last episode of Monster Girls for a while to be a character intro. After this we can get down to some good comedy with some occasional character development. Oh and some sexy stuff, but honestly the sexy stuff never left. And with five different sexy monster girls being introduced in this episode we can sure expect all those things I mentioned to stay fresh and interesting.
Now while this weeks episode looks like it would suffer from a lot of the problems I had with the second episode. It works better here for two reasons. One is that Arachnera’s intro was somewhat showed in the last episode. Also her intro incorporates the “MON” squad we are introduced in the first half. This at least gives the episode a little more flow and doesn’t feel as choppy and as disjointed as to whats happening. Having an intro that really has nothing to do with whats been already established this late in the game is a little more unforgivable. But they handle it well enough to where it fits in fine.
Now both of these intro’s have their good points. The “MON” squad is cool because we get a team of hot sexy girls that don’t have anything to do with our main protagonist. And throw in the fact that they work with Ms. Smith, kick some serious ass, and all have some serious personality, and you got quite the sub plot. In fact I would totally be okay with just watching a show about the “MON” squad. Seeing monster girls do something other than make jokes and be sexy is always nice. Not that I’m saying watching monster girls making jokes and being sexy is getting boring, I like both equally. And with an excessive show like Monster Girls already, why not just cram as much cool and fun shit in as you can?
With the sexy monster squad aside, this episode is cool because it provides another look into how they handle monster crimes under their “Interspecies Exchange Act”. The pure need for a monster-only assault squad makes so much sense, and when things happen that are cool and also make sense is like a cherry on top of an ice cream sundae. It was also nice to see male monsters in this show finally, even if they are the grossest thing ever. And I’m not just talking about their looks, they are literally gross, from like a personal standing. Honestly none of the sex jokes really hit me in the first half, but I guess that’s just me. I’ve said before that I’m not a fan of sexualizing, guys being predatory towards women, and that’s basically the gag in this first half. And seeing they did it in the last half too, kinda irks me. But I’m not gonna fault the whole show for something that shows up very rarely. And I’m not saying that there aren’t good jokes intertwined with these gross voyeuristic scenes, because there certainly is.
As for the second half, we are introduced to the “best girl” Rachnera, a spider girl with a human upper half. Now before I get to why she’s the best girl, am I the only one who thinks some of these names are really dumb? Like “Zombina” and “Rachnera” are basically just saying what kind of creature they are. It’s dumb to think someone of that species would name their kid that. It would be like me calling my daughter “Girla”. Its stupid and I don’t really know if it’s just laziness or if its suppose to be funny and I’m not getting it.
But anyway, her stupid name shouldn’t put you off to loving Rachnera, because you should love her. Not only does she have one of the more interesting character designs, she also has the potential for having one of the best character arcs. Oh and she also has a kick ass personality that doesn’t entirely have to do with her love for the main character. But going back to her character arc. While Miia had considerable ridicule and disgust from onlookers for being different, Rachnera never had the crutch of having someone like Kimihito to care for and defend her. She was straight kicked to the curb and then just used by the person she was given too. Safe to say that her situation is a bit more traumatizing.
And seeing that she has found someone who accepts her in Kimihito, even if his reasoning is dumb and silly, she can grow to be less hating of humans. And even though Kimihito’s reasoning is stupid, its silly enough to where I genuinely laughed when he says how he has a leg fetish, somehow implying that it doesn’t matter what kind of legs, just any will turn him on. I bet if he saw a millipede girl he would flip his shit. But Rachnera has more going for her besides her legs, she also is more crass and dirty that the other girls, not to mention extremely self-indulgent. She will almost serve the same purpose as Suu as being someone who puts other girls in sexy situations. However unlike Suu, Rachnera will be conscious of the things she does and will most likely relish in her dirty deeds. And while later Rachnera may acquire feelings for Kimihito, right now she just wants to be with people who care about her for who and what she is.
Now I may be biased about Rachnera and be way more optimistic on the way they will handle her character. But at the very least she will be entertaining. As for the “MON” squad, they’re funny and interesting but I doubt they’ll show up often. And seeing that Miia, Cerea, and Papi are most likely the main three girls, Rachnera will probably be a side character like Suu or Mero. But that’s nice in its one way because it can leave her to do her own thing. All I ask for is that she shows up enough that we don’t forget she’s there. Oh and to see her do cute and sexy things, because if I haven’t said enough times, I really like Rachnera. Which is weird considering I kill a spider every time I see one. But getting aroused over things you normally wouldn’t get aroused over is what Monster Girls does best. So I should stop being surprised at how such weird things turn me on.
A nice high-resolution set photo from Captain America: Civil War has hit the internet. You can see in the photo below that Sebastian Stan’s ‘Winter Soldier’ has a nice jog with Anthony Macki’s ‘Falcon.’ In an earlier article we established that Winter Soldier and Falcon would be working together.
Directed by Anthony & Joe Russo from a screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, Captain America: Civil War picks up where Avengers: Age of Ultron left off, as Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) leads the new team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. After another international incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability and a governing body to determine when to enlist the services of the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers while they try to protect the world from a new and nefarious villain.
Starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Chadwick Boseman, Emily VanCamp, Daniel Brühl, Frank Grillo, William Hurt, and Martin Freeman.
Captain America: Civil War is set for release on May 6, 2016.
Marvel Comics continues to put the characters they sold the film rights to on the shelf. Earlier this year Marvel discontinued the Fantastic Four comic book and this November in Amazing Spider-Man #3 written by Dan Slott, Peter Parker and Parker Industries take over the Baxter Building.
At what point does 20th Century Fox sue Marvel Comics for devaluing the brand, the only problem is Fox doesn’t help their cause by making shitty Fantastic Four films.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #3
Writen by DAN SLOTT
Art by GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI
Cover by ALEX ROSS
Variant Cover by GABRIELE DELL’OTTO
More of Spider-Man’s post-Secret Wars world revealed! Visit Parker Industries New York Headquarters, the building formerly known as the Baxter Building! The Human Torch is going to have something to say about that!
It appears that 20th Century Fox will release Prometheus 2 in 2017 and follow it up with Neill Blomkamp’s Alien in 2018, according to a source at BloodyDisgusting.com.
The new Alien film is being delayed because Ridley Scott wants to finish Prometheus 2 before moving on to produce the Alien film.
“Alien 5 is still very much in the works, as Fox remains hot on the idea. Blomkamp continues to work on the script (only an outline existed previously) and refine the tale he is telling. Ridley Scott is still producing, but has insisted on Prometheus 2 being made first,” said a source at BloodyDisgusting.com.
Ant-Man is pulling away from The Incredible Hulk at the box office but is still $19,110,835 away from Captain America: The First Avenger. The odd-ball hero just wrapped up week five at the box office generating $5,493,417. Marvel films usually stay in the theater for 16 weeks, Avengers: Age of Ultron is on week 15.
Ant-Man has beat Captain America in weeks five and six, also Ant-Man is playing on more theaters and isn’t dropping off as much as The First Avengers did week to week. Is Ant-Man getting a box office boost due to the bomb that was Fantastic Four? Ant-Man is projected to finish right around $170,000,000.
If Ant-Man does beat Captain America: The First Avenger at the box office it will be a photo finish in week 16.
[table caption=”Marvel Films” colwidth=”20|200|50|50|50″ colalign=”left|left|right|right|right”]
Rank,Film,Year,Opening Weekend,Gross
1,The Avengers,2012,$207.4M,$623.4M
2,Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2015, $191.2M,$457.3M
3,Iron Man 3, 2013, $174.1M, $409M
4,Iron Man 2, 2010, $128.1M, $312.4M
5,Iron Man, 2008, $98.6M, $318.4M
6,Captain America: Winter Soldier, 2014, $95M, $259.7M
7,Guardians of the Galaxy,2014,$94.3M,$318.4M
8,Thor: Dark World, 2013,$85.7M,$206.3M
9,Thor, 2011,$65.7M,$181M
10, Captain America: The First Avenger, 2011,$65M,$176.6M
11,Ant-Man, 2015,$58M,$157.5M
12,The Incredible Hulk, 2008,$55.4M, $134.5M
[/table]
20th Century Fox released the first trailer to Victor Frankenstein Tuesday morning.
James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe star in a twist on a legendary tale. Radical scientist Victor Frankenstein (McAvoy) and his equally brilliant protégé Igor Strausman (Radcliffe) share a noble vision of aiding humanity through their groundbreaking research into immortality. But Victor’s experiments go too far, and his obsession has horrifying consequences. Only Igor can bring his friend back from the brink of madness and save him from his monstrous creation.
Victor Frankenstein will bein theaters on November 25.
